How is it that I can write an entire novel, 125,000 words, 381 pages of pure genius yet I cannot for the life of me write 3 sentences in a query letter? Can someone please explain?
Hook, mini-synopsis, whatever you want to call it...they suck or I guess all of mine suck.
I've had 7 rejections, two said they didn't see a flaw in my writing but wasn't sure how to bring my book to market which reminded me of something I heard the at SF writers conference during Katharine Sands lecture. She said be a happy hooker. I need to know how to bring your book to market, in order to do that you need to sell the plot to me so I can sell your book.
What does it mean if I can't sell my plot? Does it mean my book sucks or am I not a happy hooker?
This is just a post to vent because nobody else understands my frustration. My husband gives me a blank stare whenever I bring up queries. It's the same stare he gave me when I tried to explain why Maddie is always on the top of the pyramid on Dance Moms. He doesn't get it and never will. At this point I don’t think anyone ever will!
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Take a look at Query Shark http://queryshark.blogspot.com/. This is probably the best resource for how to craft a query letter. Read all the entries and see how they went from bad to quer-tastic. I've found this site to be invaluable.
I submitted my fantasy/romance novel Traitor Knight to an open submission call by Harper Voyager recently. In order to do this I had to boil my 115, 062 words of priceless (which means so far no one has bought 'em) prose into 1500 characters. Surgigal removal? Nah, just chop it out with an axe... I went from a synopsis of 1108 words (which in itself was an amazing feat of hacking) down to 260 words to describe the book. Revisions of revisions of bloodied and mangles synopsi littered the cutting room floor--I could have been the maniacal villain in every slasher movie ever made. Mwa ha ha! Chop! Slice! Die, evil words, die!
And when it was done (with two words to spare) I found that I had a decent pitch for the book. It's not what I would necessarily chose to describe it, but it works, and it gets the basic storyline across. And chopping up my baby with an axe like that was definitely an interesting and useful exercise. They made me sweat, but it was worth it.
Hi! Let's talk. I can help. I understand the frustration of query letters, but as a manuscript reviewer for a publisher, I've come accustom to what works. I was at that same lecture when Catherine Sands said to be a happy hooker! You should check out my twitter description -- I think you'll laugh. (can look me up @mellymoulton).
I just said the same thing to my husband. It's a wonder anyone gets published! I've had tremendous feedback on my book, so I'm confident in my work. But you're right, taking over 300 pages of storyline, plot and character development and puting it into a 3 line hook is nearly impossible.
I don't know if this is in your query or not, but I noticed that your book is REALLY long. I did some research on agentquery.com (per one of my rejecting agents referral) and what I found there is that the general consensus is that anything over 110k words for your first novel doesn't bode well. I'm sure your book is great, I'm just offering a suggestion of what may be turning agents off.
BEST WISHES to you! I've just joined SFWU and am already feeling better about my work by simply having a group that truly understands our plight at writers!
Sometimes we are too close to our work to condense it down into a few sentences. If you have a blind reader, by that I mean someone you have read your entire novel to give you feedback, maybe they can give you their prespective of what the three lines should be?
I thought I had a pretty good query for my novel, but it still gets rejected. I've had about 25 rejections so far and still going strong. Remember, trying to get an agent these days is like trying to get into Harvard. Just keep trucking!
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